CHAPTER 26

“On radar,” came a call from the crew chief station.

Pete looked over his shoulder to his would be crew chief. “You sure?”

Jerry nodded in the affirmative. Pete thought that the Tennessee Reverend had adjusted himself quite well to weightless conditions. A lot of the crew were still acting like rookies. They played like kids with a new toy, fidgeted, and had yet to really get the idea that zero gravity was just another working condition. It was a pain in the butt kind of condition too. Most of them still looked like clowns as they fumbled around for tools on Hermes.

Doctor Mike was riding shotgun for this trip. He was watching the telemetry that was being beamed up from Houston. He compared it to what Jerry was watching on the radar and then noted the flight schedule, “looks like a water can.”

Unmanned rockets had been boosting, almost exclusively, giant water containers into low orbit for several days now. The payloads were too heavy to make a large number of high orbit launches practical. The number of vehicles needed, just to get the minimum amount of required water into orbit, exceeded the current supply of disposable rockets. That figure also included private launch vehicles.

Fortunately someone had come up with a solution. Some unsung hero’s at JPL had suggested using the recoverable low orbit boosters that were primarily used for lifting small weather satellites. The amount of water you could loft with one was no where near that of a large disposable booster but you could use them over and over again.

The water containers, that were specially designed for the Hermes, were really glorified water heaters. They kept the water a few degrees above freezing in the cold of outer space. When the reusable boosters looked to be the best option the production models of the water storage units were scaled down to fit them. As it turned out, they actually worked better than the large prototypes. It was something of a blessing in disguise. At least it would be if not for the one string involved.

The small rockets could not hoist the water tanks high enough, or go fast enough, to achieve a stable orbit. Once they cleared the atmosphere they would come down like a lead balloon in a half hour or less. That meant the Venturestar pilots, of which most were rookies, were going to have to recover them once they cleared the atmosphere. It was a task that amounted to one speeding bullet trying to lasso another.

It was a task that was impossible for a human to accomplish. It was almost impossible for the flight computer as well. Pete got his telemetry from Mission Control and checked the data as he loaded it into the computer. Even with the second by second calculations that would control the maneuver jets, this little job was still going to require the human eye and brain. It made Pete think, and feel proud, that even this million dollar computer was going to need him to get the job done.

“Mission control,” Pete said when the task was done, “commencement of burn on my mark.” He set the clock and suddenly had nothing to do for two whole minutes. Pete smirked, “hurry up and wait.”

Jerry relaxed as well, “I guess you’d rather have Jack up here doing this.”

Jack was supposed to have been flying today. Congress had other ideas on the matter so Pete was stuck with the hop. There were worse jobs right now, “what? You mean would I rather risk life and limb skipping an orbiter off the atmosphere, possibly facing an anguishing death of fire, or face a panel of congressmen on a witch hunt? That’s easy. Dying a fiery death is a lot less painful than sitting on capitol hill.”

“Well I didn’t mean…” Jerry stumbled around correcting himself, “I meant you could have been with your family like everybody else is right now.”

Red Darby had been having the time of his life on this mission. He finally got to sit in the co-pilots seat on a real mission. That was not what he was listed as doing in the log but, Pete was beyond caring what some pencil neck down in Houston thought of it. If all went well those people were going to be literally a million miles behind them when all was said and done. Pete preferred finding out about the people he was going to be flying with, sooner, as opposed to later.

Red’s good spirits were clearly visible as he said, “hell, wouldn’t nobody claim Pete if you paid ‘em.”

“Look who’s talking old man,” Pete shot back. “I don’t see any mob of women running up to kiss you on the cheek.”

Red leaned over trying to give Pete a smooch but the Marine was able to fend him off. Then the reporter looked back to the doctor, “what about you Mike? You got a family don’t you?”

Mike was seldom the laughing man. Now was no exception. He was quite serious as he said, “my family is NASA.”

Pete snorted a contemptuous laugh, “well there’s a cliché if I ever heard one.”

“You should know better than anyone Pete,” Mike replied sincerely, “you have too give up a lot for this life.”

That set Pete to brooding, “adds a whole knew meaning to the words, I gave at the office.” Pete thought about it for a minute and looked back to his preacher crew chief, “what about you, brother Jerry? You don’t have a congregation back up in some holler, waiting to give you a send off?”

“I’m not from the mountains,” Jerry replied. “That’s east Tennessee. Besides, you did my background. You should know already.”

The fact that Jerry was quite defensive escaped no one. Red was trying to decide who was worse, him or Pete. It was easily Jerry so Red had to comment, “well looks who’s getting touchy on us.”

Silence descended as the clock ticked down. Jerry broke it with, “why don’t you tell them Pete. I guess they might as well know.”

Suddenly Pete was quite apologetic, “look Jerry. I didn’t mean it like that. I wasn’t thinking, all right?”

Mike and Red exchanged confused glances. Naturally it was Red who had to ask, “tell us what? You know guys, I don’t know if it’s quite the time to be holding out on us.”

Pete bit when he said, “yeah right Red. You’re the biggest damn gossip in the crew… Well, maybe with the exception of Pam but that doesn‘t count.”

Jerry broke in and put the discussion at an end, “there was a woman.” He looked up at the overhead windows. It was filled with an overwhelming blue that was broken up by the clouds that swirled miles and miles beneath them. After a deep breath Jerry said, “I violated a trust. Not with her you understand. I can’t say that I didn’t love her, but….”

As Jerry’s words trailed off, suddenly, Red felt like sinking in his seat despite the fact that there was no gravity to help him do it. He sighed and nodded, “it’s all right Jerry.”

“No,” finally Jerry looked back at the faces of his fellow crewman, “it’s not all right Red. One of these days I hope that certain people might forgive me for what happened.”

That made Pete think. He took a serious look at the reverend for a second. He could see it. McCandles had said it all along but, now, Pete really could see what the Sergeant Major had been talking about. Jerry Pullman carried himself like a soldier. He had that spark in his eye, and his voice was as calm under pressure as you could get. Still, despite the fact that McCandles thought it was bad, Pete thought it was a plus. They needed that quality on this trip.

Pete asked, but indirectly, “what about God? Is he going to forgive you?”

“That’s up to him Pete,” Jerry replied. “All we can do is ask. I’m hoping that when my time comes, the all mighty really is a lot more understanding and forgiving than we are. Maybe he can make something out of it that I didn’t. Maybe he’ll know that there were reasons for what happened. Till that time though, I have a responsibility of my own.”

Now Red and Pete were passing glances back and forth. They both had that same question in their eyes. ‘What the hell is this guy talking about?’

Pete went on by asking, “so what is that responsibility, exactly?”

“The same as all of us Pete,” Jerry said perking up. “Just because you’ve been saved doesn’t excuse you from doing right by your fellow man. What’s between you and god is up to god. What’s between you and others, well that’s up to you.”

Red shrugged, “I can buy that one.”

The warning tone sounded and the crew prepared to play catch the bucket.